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For most of my hives, I don't use smoke until we get past the main flow. I use smoke on every hive once we hit the hot summer.

I went through 19 hives (some were overwintered Nucs) this last...

In my situation (i.e. I do not believe in requeening in the way that it is recommended, so most of my hives come out of Winter with queens entering their 2nd, 3rd and (in rare instances) 4th year), I...

Drone comb is not enough for me to feel good about doing my first splits. From capped to mating for a drone can be longer that it takes a hive to raise a queen and have her go on the maiden flights....

I had a hive swarm on me (actually, I've had quite a few do that to me this year), with me arriving a day or two late. With several queen cells available, so I took a few cells for Nucs and then...

As an update, at the time of the initiation of this thread, I had several dozen supers (of all sizes) filled with foundation in my pole shed. They were all inspected and then used over the past 3...

Some bees (I think it has to do with the genetics) fly in the 30's. I've never seen any of mine fly in the 20's, but many in the upper 30's. When it happens, you'll see a bunch of hives with no...

The foragers will go back to the original LOCATION. If the parent hive is in that location, that's where they'll go. If you move the parent hive and put the Nuc back at the original location,...

Thanks for all of the advice. I'm glad I asked.

Thanks. So, I have a second question!

How did you setup the box in the holder frame? I had pulled a drawn deep frame from my inventory and was going to cut a hole to put it in, but then I saw a...

Normally, I give the bees every chance to supercede her.

Given your location, I am not sure (don't you guys deal with a lot of AHB, making open breeding a problem?)

In my area, I have a couple...

Depends on when you yank the frames or 'do your split'.

I'd say wax moth.

No big deal. Don't 'take action' unless your bees have a problem. A strong hive will keep them in check.

Once you get a good day, pull all of the frames. Hiding beneath a...

if you had capped swarm cells, they probably already swarmed

Finally getting around to trying some queen rearing. Of course, I have set everything up only to begin second guessing myself...

The Nicot system uses a bunch of plastic pieces - one is a brown...

Sounds like a failing queen to me. Is the brood really spotty with lots of holes and only taking up a small bit of space?

I'm just to the North of you. Had drones walking on the comb on Feb 17 (just a few per hive and not all hives.) This last Thur, I had enough drones to fill a Nuc in one hive. You can definitely...

I am treatment free (I do use honey bee healthy, so it may depend on how you define it) and things are working well. I help folks start but always recommend that newbies simply focus on keeping...

It would be interesting to know how well your walk away's do vs your purchased queens. It's too early to draw any conclusions, but it would still be interesting.

5 frame Deep, 5 frame Medium. Same price.

Instead of thinking that the Medium is expensive, think of it that the Deep is a real bargain. They are welcome to the bargain if they want it instead.

In my part of the woods, that would be a skunk. They love to eat a yellow jacket nest.

Assuming you have skunks, they can work on a hive. But, I have never lost a hive to one. I keep them up 12...

Primed and painted is fine. I've been keeping wooden fences up longer then I've had beehives. I can tell you that a coat of paint every 3 years or so goes a long way towards wood longevity.

The...

If you're running two deeps for brood, use shallows for honey - you stand a better chance of getting full, capped supers.

Protein. Sometimes, it's the best they can find and they take advantage of it. Just like when you see them sucking on the side of a maple where the ole wood pecker hit her and she leaks during a warm...

I've never known anyone who uses open feeders to help weak hives. We use it to help get the bees going once we see the pollen coming in. I've had very good luck with it, but it's not like I have a...

I don't use wire. No problems with extractor (yet...knock on wood) or otherwise.